I swear, we all have them. For some it's cooling or suspension...or maybe an electrical issue. For me, it's coolant leaks. I swear I am constantly finding little things here and there. Kinda like the old saying about if a Porsche isn't leaking oil that there is something wrong...if I am not smelling a hint of coolant when I park, then something must be wrong

-Replaced a turbo water line last weekend...that was new when I swapped the engine back in July.
-Replaced bothe heater hoses after one started leaking in August.
-Front block-off plate for the coolant reroute started weeping a couple weeks ago and I had to put a new gasket on it.
-Last night my lower radiator hose had to be replaced.
-Oh and right after I did the swap, one of the coolant lines to the throttle body popped off at WOT and covered the engine bay in coolant.
-Another leak I had was at the upper radiator hose and the radiator that caused the lexan shroud to degrade and crack apart.
-Replaced turbo coolant lines 3 or 4 times in the past 3 years.
-Water line from the back of the block to the oil cooler decided to split one day.

I swear I just need to hard line/banjo fitting EVERYTHING I can get my hands on


So what issues constantly nag at you/your car?

 

I've had 3 CASs just die, and always right after I make some other change (motor swap, moving up to MS2)...strange crap.

 

Boost creep
Valve noise ('00 head)
Overheating (Solved)
Oil Leak (Solved, for now)

 

1.6l

 

brake pedal feel. It's always a guess where it will engage. brb, rebuilding more calipers.

 

Noises from the suspension.

 

I have those...but I ignore them in fear I'll constantly be f*king with it
I just tell myself "Oh that's the sway bar endlinks making noise because they're those fancy helm-joint deals and I had those on the steering rack on my gocart and they were clankity on that too."

 

electrical fucknuggetry. I can deal with mechanical issues all day, but I hate wiring crap.

 

I didn't understand why 90% of shocks use rubber upper mounts, still don't. After switching to metal lower mounts it started making sense, and in a 20-year old "flimsy" car running over tarred joints in the road is loud.

 

When you pay top dollar to get the Ohlins and the sealed Powergrid endlinks ($170 per pair, ffs), the last thing you expect is squeaking after 6 months.

I hate my life for choosing the Energy Suspension bushings. That was a mistake I have to live with every time I go over a bump on the street, you can hear the rubber compressing like you've put it near a mic and you've cranked up the volume to 11 out of 10.

 

Rattles in the car. I track down and fix one, 3 new ones appear. All the more reason to just strip the interior bare (replacing things I need like carpet), get a hard top, and drive it. Most of the rattles are soft top frame related I think. I've pretty much given up on fixing them though, been doing it for 3 years and it's just impossible, especially with the terrible roads we have around here.

 

That's why I never got that bushing kit. I remember reading soo many reviews about them and everyone said the same thing.

There's been a lot of little **** here and there over the years that used to drive me crazy. I went through a period when I would pop off a coupler every other week, same with vac lines. When I had the 16x8 sportmaxx wheels I couldn't drive over 5mph without it rubbing the **** out of the tire and throwing chunks of rubber behind me. The normal hardtop and chassis noises started to really bother me.

The thing I hate most about my car?

Probably that I only drive it a couple months out of the year. For some reason it always seems to be the winter months.

 

I wonder.. why do you use the metric system when it comes to cars?

As for the thread, it's all about exhaust. I've actually had to remove the rear brace because I was unable to find an exhaust that didn't mess with it. :(

 

Nice to hear about the ES stuff, I was thinking baout doign it too. The Ohlins don't make any noise, but those damn FM end links like to squeak and clunk a whole lot.

 

Because we're old-school. The elder-class of American construction consider customary measure a national heritage. I dislike it too.

 

Dislike? Anything BUT the metric system is like.. wrong. :P
There's people measuring weight in stone ffs.

Metric ftw!

 

bane?

my idle goes nuts when I turn the A/C on.

 

Not having a miata to drive is lame.

 

gear crunchiness. It has Motorcraft fluid I just did the change 2k mi ago and every gear still feels a bit like ****. I might change to Redline in the next week or two...

3k exhaust raspiness. I'm going to soak the heatshield bolts in PB over the next few days and take the **** off and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I need a new cat or header...

 

Mmmmm pastries.